Foreword: plant and canopy architecture impact on disease epidemiology and pest development

Bernard Tivoli,Agnès Calonnec,Didier Andrivon,Alain Baranger,Michael Jeger

doi:10.1007/s10658-012-0112-4

Abstract

Developing and implementing alternatives to the ‘pesticide only’ approach requires improvements in current pest control methods (using Decision Support Systems, longer rotations, more robust cultivars, mixed crops, crop management...), but also the generation of new knowledge that can be put to use in integrated and innovative crop production systems. Innovative studies are now needed that place the plant at the centre of the crop protection system; and, to do so, analyse how plant architectural traits can be used to limit or suppress disease epidemics. This topic is not new: it was indeed an important field of research before the advent of the ‘pesticide only’ approach that has dominated the practise of plant protection since the 1970s. Today there is a renewed impetus, firstly because of the societal pressure to develop environmentally friendlier pest control strategies, but also thanks to the advances in experimental and modelling activities which now allow truly interdisciplinary work when tackling complex systems. This volume puts together the main keynote papers delivered to the conference “Plant and Canopy Architecture Impact on Disease Epidemiology and Pest Development”, held in Rennes, France, in July 2012. The papers illustrate disciplinary complementarities, by including contributions from plant pathologists, disease epidemiologists, entomologists, agronomists, plant and crop physiologists, bioclimatologists, plant geneticists and appliedmathematicians.Many papers are co-authored by specialists from different disciplinary origins, highlighting the integrative efforts that need to be made to tackle a problem that may appear at first to be relevant only to plant pathologists. Why is such an interdisciplinary research strategy actually required? Simply, because the question at Eur J Plant Pathol (2013) 135:453–454 DOI 10.1007/s10658-012-0112-4

Highlights

Developing and implementing alternatives to the ‘pesticide only’ approach requires improvements in current pest control methods, and the generation of new knowledge that can be put to use in integrated and innovative crop production systems
Innovative studies are needed that place the plant at the centre of the crop protection system; and, to do so, analyse how plant architectural traits can be used to limit or suppress disease epidemics
Jeger Division of Ecology and Evolution and Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, Silwood Park campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK. This topic is not new: it was an important field of research before the advent of the ‘pesticide only’ approach that has dominated the practise of plant protection since the 1970s

Summary

Introduction

Foreword: plant and canopy architecture impact on disease epidemiology and pest development Developing and implementing alternatives to the ‘pesticide only’ approach requires improvements in current pest control methods (using Decision Support Systems, longer rotations, more robust cultivars, mixed crops, crop management...), and the generation of new knowledge that can be put to use in integrated and innovative crop production systems.

Results

Conclusion